1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a storage device which is suitable so to pre-sort, and keep in a state of readiness, medication, especially medication in solid form, in proportion to the medically prescribed individual rhythm of consumption of any given patient, so that its dispensing in the proper dose at prescribed times can take place without any problems.
2. The Prior Art
Such storage devices are needed for storing medications and for simplifying the dispensing of medicine, particularly in the care of elderly and handicapped persons. Medicine chests with different subdivisions are known for timeously making medicines available for handicapped or aged persons. In this connection, so-called blister packages deposited in inserts are used which indicate at which day of the week and at what time the corresponding medicine is to be taken.
Since with aged people the quantity of dispensed medicine is relatively high, increased demands are placed upon the caretaker responsible for the administration of the medicines.
German specification DE 296 10 951 U1 discloses a sorting container for small components, in particular medicines in tablet or capsule form, which is provided with a box-like receiving element and which may receive up to seven arrayed individual receptacles. The box-like receiving element is provided with an opening in the forward center zone of its bottom as well as with a vertical slot in its forward wall through which the forward individual receptacle may be withdrawn. Every individual receptacle is provided with a rectangular aperture wherein a sliding transparent lid is movably mounted in internal grooves near the upper edges of the longitudinal walls of the aperture.
A further container for storing articles, in particular medicines, cosmetics or jewelry is described in German specification DE 198 56 491 C2. The principal characteristic of that invention is a sliding member structured as a roller lid shutter which is operatively connected with a storage element by way of a compensating clutch. The flexible sliding member is guided in parallel internal grooves in side walls. The storage element is provided with consecutively arrayed chamber sections which are separated from each other by rigid separation webs.
A parallelepiped container of modular structure, especially for medication, is known from WO 99/02118, the pivotal lid and pivotal bottom section of which are each unilaterally connected to the rear wall of the container. The seven chamber sections of the container arranged in a parallelepiped shape are separated from each other by rigid separation webs. Moreover, for increasing the storage capacity, several containers structured as daily dosage dispensers may be connected to each other by way of a groove and tongue connection disposed at their longitudinal sides.
The subject of U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,229 is a container structured as a weekly dosage dispenser receiving vertically arranged daily dosage dispensers with the front wall as well as the sidewalls which extend to about half the depth of the daily dosage dispenser being open. The individual daily dosage dispensers which are divided into up to four compartments can be taken out of the weekly dosage dispenser from the front thereof. Each of the individual compartments of the daily dosage dispensers can be separately opened by transparent lids. Arresting and guidance of the individual daily dosage dispensers within the weekly dosage dispenser are accomplished by abutments at the interior wall of the container.
Also, prior art British specification 2,122,578 A discloses a parallelepiped container for receiving several vertically arrayed individual containers and enclosing them at every side by its lateral sides. The essence of the invention resides in a vertically slidable front cover being provided with cut-out section through which containers may be removed one at a time. In a preferred embodiment, the individual containers are removed at the upper section of the receiving container by a spring element provided with a connected relatively movable bottom portion. Once a container has been removed, the container following next in the array is moved to the cut-out section by the bias of the spring.